Many elderly Californians receive too much income to qualify for free Medi-Cal.
A recent article titled, “Living on $600 a month? Seniors over income limit can struggle to afford Medi-Cal,” published in the LA Times on November 27, 2024, discusses the challenges faced by low-income seniors in California to afford basic cost of living expenses and meet their medical needs. Many elderly Californians receive too much income to qualify for free Medi-Cal. Even $1 over the income limit for free Medi-Cal can result in a monthly share of medical cost of $800 or more. Medi-Cal income rules still rely on an income factor, established in the late 1980’s, of $600 a month to determine individual’s share of their monthly Medi-Cal cost. The article illustrates this difficulty through the experience of one elderly individual living in Los Angeles.
Advocates like Tiffany Huyenh-Cho, Director of California Medicare & Medicaid Advocacy at the Los Angeles based advocacy center, Justice In Aging, are pushing to raise the income limit to better reflect living costs, aiming for changes by 2026.
In a statement to the LA Times, Tiffany Huyenh-Cho highlights the urgency of such reforms, stating, “”Without these changes, we risk pushing more seniors into poverty and institutional care, which is far more costly in the long run.”
